A Quick Note About Author Solutions and WestBow Press

Hey friends. Last week, I moved this blog to WordPress.org, because while I wanted to be able to host ads, I wanted more control over what they were. (Ads about becoming a paralegal are fine, for instance — who knows, maybe you would enjoy being a paralegal — but I really don’t want to subject you to headlines like “Worst Celebrity Beach Bodies.”)

With WordPress.org and Google AdSense, I can block advertisements from certain URLs.

On the first day with Google AdSense, ads from Author Solutions and WestBow Press appeared on my site. This is actually pretty good targeting. Many readers of this blog are writers who are interested in self-publishing, which is great! Ordinarily I would be happy to have relevant ads show up on my site, but in this case, I blocked both URLs immediately.

I am not an expert on Author Solutions (which runs many imprints in the U.S. and in other countries, as you can read about on Wikipedia) or WestBow Press, which is Author Solutions’s partnership with Christian publisher Thomas Nelson & Zondervan. I have heard enough about them to have formed the negative impression that they charge way too much and take advantage of writers who are new to self-publishing. I do not endorse them. However, I mean no insult to any writers who have used them.

If you self-publish, I strongly recommend that you steer clear of large publishing packages, particularly ones that do not include such essential things as quality line edits, proofreading, and obtaining a U.S. copyright as part of their entry-level package.

Hi Timothy! I don’t recommend using one publishing company for everything.

I recommend contracting the following services: cover design (unless you are a talented designer), line editing, and proofreading. You can also hire someone to do the formatting (I did), but lots of people learn how to do that themselves. The other two expenses are your ISBN number from Bowker and your U.S. copyright.

For an ebook, you would want to use Kindle Direct Publishing for sure and put it on Amazon. You can distribute your ebook on Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and Kobo as well. (Kindle takes a mobi file; everything else takes an epub file.) I’m wary of Google Play based on comments from other authors, but you can read up on it and see what you think. Or you might decide to go Amazon only in order to participate in Kindle Unlimited.

For a print book version, you can use CreateSpace (Amazon only), Lightning Source, or SmashWords. I believe Lulu and iUniverse are part of Author Solutions, and I’ve heard lots of complaints about both.

Several companies offer promotional packages that include things like arranging blog tours. You can also do this kind of thing yourself.

I hope this helps, and I’m happy to answer any follow-up questions! I’m not a self-publishing expert, but I’ve been through it once at least. 🙂

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